Real meaning of what was said
Well, I heard or read a lot of interesting and/or bizarre things over the last week.
Let’s start with my least favorite topic – the Donald. Trump was in California last week and he announced that there is no drought. Hold on – there’s no drought out west? This was news to people who live out there and have been facing drought conditions for quite some time now. About 900,000 Pennsylvanians voted for this guy for president? I still have trouble believing that.
To continue with the Donald, Huffington Post reports that when Trump met with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan a little while ago, he told Ryan that he really wants to cut Social Security benefits. According to the source who was in the room, Trump said he can’t say that publicly because he would lose the election. So, to all you angry, older guys out there who are for Trump, because he will stick it to “those people” – when your Social Security check shrinks if Trump becomes president, remember that you are part of “those people” that he is going to stick it to. As the parent of a student at a school I used to teach at said, “I used to be worried about Voter ID. Now, I’m worried about Voter IQ.”
Ever since the Donald starting quoting Mussolini I have been interested in trying to match Trump’s rise with the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s (or for that matter, in places like Austria, today). I looked in my old history textbook and found this quote:
“The new militant political movement called fascism em- phasized loyalty to the state and obedience to its leader. Fascists promised to revive the economy, punish those responsible for hard times, and restore national pride… Unlike communism, fascism had no clearly defined theory or program.”
Does that sound familiar to anyone aside from me? His supporters believe things like the following: The Donald speaks the truth; he can do no wrong (even when he is wrong); “Make American great again;” the Donald refuses to be politically correct; he will create “jobs, jobs, jobs;” he will ban Muslim immigrants; he will build a wall.
And does Trump ever fit the “… no clearly defined theory or program” part. The guy never says anything specific about how to reach any of his goals. He rarely speaks in sentences of more than five words.
People who are worried about Trump need to get off their duffs. Just because we are right, doesn’t mean he can’t win.
By the way, do you know that Trump’s company is building a golf course in Ireland and, guess what, the company wants to build a wall to keep seawater out, because climate change might cause a problem? Of course, the Donald is a climate change denier, claiming at one point that it was some kind of Chinese government hoax. You have to love the hypocrisy.
…In the world of sports, columnist Frank Fitzpatrick got my attention with this quote from Russian novelist Maxim Gorky: ““Sport,” Gorky wrote in 1928, “has a single clear purpose: to make people even more stupid than they are.” Fitzpatrick goes on to explain: “What Gorky specifically meant was that by devoting so much energy and attention to essentially meaningless pursuits, the average citizen - his ‘bourgeois’ - was neglecting those issues that really mattered.”
As a sports fan, I have to admit I was a bit offended at first. But after reading the column about the dark side of sports like the scandal at Baylor University, I have to admit it made some sense. I think in light of what I have written about Donald Trump above one of the important issues we can’t neglect is the upcoming election. I know Karl Marx once wrote that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Maybe, in modern times, sports has become the opiate of the masses. We can’t let that happen. Being a vigilant citizen has to take priority.
…I also read that Phoenixville Middle School set a record by having 726 participants in a game of knockout. As a basketball coach, I know how hard it is to organize 12 players in a game of knockout, let alone 726! Kudos go to Phoenixville Middle School.
Finally, as I was channel surfing I saw the weirdest thing of the week – a woman on the ABC show “The Bachelorette” was walking around with a goat’s head on. I don’t even want to know what that was about.